A few weeks ago, we presented several suggestions for how BioWare could bounce back from a troubled recent history full of painful missteps. Among our recommendations, we urged BioWare to disassociate itself from unrelated Electronic Arts subsidiaries that had only been rebranded as BioWare for marketing reasons. Consider us officially surprised by our own prescience, because it appears that BioWare is beginning to do just that. However, given the circumstances under which we’re finding out about it, we wonder if instead of a revitalization, we have reached what may be the beginning of the end of BioWare’s privileged place within Electronic Arts.

BioWare Mythic, the studio tasked with bringing Warhammer Online to life, issued a very understated announcement yesterday that, effective immediately, it is reverting to its original name, Mythic Entertainment. “In the wake of a new focus,” the announcement cryptically says, “our studio has recently changed its name from BioWare Mythic to Mythic. Everything else stays the same – our passionate teams will continue to support and develop our existing titles as well as working on some new and exciting projects.”

Founded in 1995, Mythic Entertainment was acquired by EA in 2006. In early 2010, it was renamed ‘BioWare Mythic’ as part of the newly created ‘BioWare Division’ within EA. Why Mythic has now been taken out of the protective embrace of BioWare’s still-somewhat good name was not revealed. Indeed, the announcement treats the reversion almost as an afterthought, something that is already old news, but that the company wanted to clarify, you know, just in case we missed it. What, precisely, that ‘new focus’ is remains unexplained, but as Mythic insists everything they’re doing remains otherwise the same, it’s obvious that BioWare is at the center of it.

Since 2010, BioWare’s once stellar reputation has declined considerably. The renaming of Victory and Mythic, along with the diluted RPG elements of Mass Effect 2, contributed to a growing perception that core studio values were being compromised away in pursuit of a broader audience. Things got worse for BioWare in 2011 with the release of a deeply flawed Dragon Age 2. Rife with technical glitches, and clearly rushed out before it was actually complete, BioWare followed it with some of the most obtuse behavior it could have made in response to fan outcry. Clearly, the company needed a big year to make up for all of this, and they hoped that year would be 2012. Unfortunately, instead of triumph, 2012 has been absolutely brutal.

The growing discontent from core customers erupted into open revolt after the infamously terrible ending of Mass Effect 3. (No numbers have been released, but the there is strong evidence that the controversy hurt sales of the game significantly). Things worsened when Star Wars: The Old Republic was (perhaps prematurely) declared a flop and forced into a humiliating free to play conversion without being given even a year to become profitable. But if any doubt remained that things are very uncertain behind the scenes, it should have been erased forever by the surprise departure of numerous high level staff, including the developer’s two cofounders.

If BioWare wants to restore its reputation for great games, not to mention the relationship with its customers, it clearly needs to make some serious decisions. While we can’t claim credit for yesterday’s announcement, it certainly sounds like a step in the right direction. Hopefully the unbranding of BioWare Victory will follow. Of course, there’s another possibility. It could also mean that EA is in the process of gutting BioWare entirely. For now, all eyes are on Dragon Age 3.

Most people who’ve left BioWare’s warm embrace in recent months – well, voluntarily, I mean – have been tediously professional in talking about their decision to leave. No criticism, no confirmation of popular opinions about the corporate parent, just dull old platitudes of being excited about their next move. Boring! But finally, the delicious moment we’ve been waiting for has arrived: someone high enough up to matter is also willing to vent their spleen.

That person would be SWTOR lead designer Daniel Erickson. In the last 24 hours, both he and SWTOR Executive Producer Rich Vogel have announced their surprise departures from BioWare. This comes less than a month after cofounders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk simultaneously resigned, and while it might not be iron-clad proof of trouble behind the scenes, it certainly confirms that an exodus of top talent at the Mass Effect developer is officially a thing1.

For his part, Vogel left to take a rather sweet job with Bethesda: he’ll be heading up the Dishonored publisher’s new Battlecry Studios in Austin. But Erickson appears to have abruptly quit his job. He isn’t telling precisely why he left without anything to cushion his fall, but in his first post-BioWare act, he finally joined Twitter, and his inaugural tweets have been a truly epic list of lines in between which many things can be read.

After starting by saying “As part of leaving BioWare I’m officially starting a twitter account for job hunt and design thoughts,” he tweeted a remark that appears to be a comment on his former place of employment. “When 90% of the industry,” he says, “is saying the exact same thing (social, mobile, FTP!) a huge number of people are going to lose that race.”

He doesn’t name any names, but does he have to? I mean, really, do we need him to draw us a map? (HINT: it’s a map of Redwood City, California.) Sure, this could be a reference to the numerous job interviews he’s had in the 24 hours – or 2 weeks, if the rumors are true – since leaving his job. But fortunately, just in case he might have been misunderstood, a couple of follow up tweets he posted a few hours later clear things up nicely:

“Job hunt thoughts: If you think a monetization approach is the same thing as a game idea I don’t know why we’re talking.”

“I keep hearing companies are making games for people who don’t like games. I keep mentally replacing “games” both times with “hats.” Why?”

I’ll say it: There is no way this can be read as anything other than a lightsaber sized middle finger aimed squarely at Erickson’s former employers, BioWare, and corporate parent Electronic Arts.

Here’s the thing: If you’ve ever seen a building with more than 3 stories on fire, you know how rats stream out of every nook and cranny they can find, the smartest and fastest of them finding the safest and quickest escape routes, while those slower, dumber, or simply in terrible position to pivot quickly end up stuck, forced to go down with burning building. It’s actually quite terrifying, and it’s exactly what it feels like when you work for a major company on the edge of collapse.

Just to be clear, Erickson and Vogel are not a couple of rats. But it’s certainly starting to look like the building from which they are fleeing is on fire. (That building, by the way, is in Redwood City.) From our point of view, it looks as though those with the means to survive, or the opportunity to go elsewhere, are piling out the door, leaving behind only those who like the way things are going, or simply can’t afford to leave. This isn’t necessarily proof of ill fortunes for the developer, but it can’t be denied that the flood of recent news isn’t exactly positive. We’ll be paying close attention to matters BioWare in the next few weeks; it’s almost certain there are many shoes left to drop. In the meantime, current BioWare employees might want to update their resumes.

With the news yesterday that BioWare cofounders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk simultaneously resigned their positions at the head of the studio, we asked if this was a sign that the company was on the way to becoming nothing more than a brand name, an EA imprint rather than a true developer. Left unasked in our article is the question of why now did they choose to bail? Naturally, that should provoke lots of speculation from Everyone. Those of you speculating might want to note that an important clue has emerged with the news, courtesy of Joystiq, that a subtle dismantling of BioWare’s industry footprint is currently underway in Ireland.

A post to EA’s official blog touts the approximately 300 jobs the publisher intends to create in a call center iin the West Region city of Galway. The facility, established last year solely to support Star Wars: The Old Republic, was formally named BioWare Ireland. It is now being reorganized to serve all major EA Europe titles, and has been renamed as the hilariously dytopian-sounding European Customer Experience Centre of Excellence, or ECECE if you’re nasty. This is obviously a big win for the citizens of Galway. Ireland has been among the EU countries hardest hit by the ongoing economic crisis, and 300 new, relatively well-paying jobs is nothing to sneeze at. (Galway only has around 76,000 people.)

Given TOR’s disappointing (to EA) performance, this isn’t exactly shocking. We fully expect the next chip to come in the form of BioWare Austin being renamed, as rumors predicted in August. But the timing of the announcement – made the same day as the announcement of the BioWare founders’ exits – should raise eyebrows of all but the most credulous observers.

This has been BioWare Beat, Game Front’s ongoing look into the… evolving fortunes of the studio behind Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age 2..